Over the last few years the internet has become much more dynamic and participatory. Many major websites now involve users in the creation of content. This is significant for archives because it suggests ways that their own virtual reading rooms might develop. A likely site of participation is the online catalogue. This paper considers the effects of user-contributed content on archivists’ two key descriptive functions: facilitating access and documenting context. It finds that user participation in description can potentially improve access, by adding detail to online catalogues and by enabling peer-mediation, and enhance interpretation, by enriching context, by providing evidence of the continuing use of records, and by incorporating multiple perspectives into the catalogue. But it also identifies dangers in user-generated content, including its potential to exclude groups of users, to introduce biases and inaccuracies into descriptions, to affect archivists’ contextual descriptions, and to undermine trust in virtual reading rooms. The strengths of user-contributed content may be harnessed, and the weaknesses limited, by the design of systems for user participation. Ultimately, however, it is clear that archivists must retain a presence in virtual reading rooms.
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